Schultz, Theodore W.

Schultz, Theodore W. (1902- ), American economist, born in Arlington, South Dakota, and educated at South Dakota State College and the University of Wisconsin. Schultz's interest in the social environment led him to study economics. From 1946, as chairman of the University of Chicago's department of economics, he focused on the importance of human resources in agriculture, particularly in underdeveloped countries. He has been a consistent critic of the emphasis developing nations often place on industrialization at the expense of agriculture. In 1979 Schultz was a corecipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work in agricultural economics. Among his books are Economic Crises in World Agriculture (1965), Economic Growth and Agriculture (1968), and Human Resources (1972).